I haven't been a regular attender of church since I've been in Germany because I've often been away on weekends. A lot of Sundays I would just find myself a quiet spot and do my own sort of worship service. I also never really listened to much worship music but since I've arrived I have started listening to Hillsong's Oceans. The lyrics of the chorus (at about 3:30 in the video) are metaphorical, but they fit well with my travelling adventures too, and it's become a favorite song.
Since I've cut back on my spending (or something like that) and have been around on weekends more often, I started visiting one of the churches in Prien nearby. As with most things :), Germany has a system for churches and people usually ask if you're Catholic or Evangelical. Evangelical in Canada is something somewhat specific, but essentially here it means Anglican. For that reason I've been attending an Anglican church here, but to be honest, what with the language meaning I understand very little, and the lack of familiarity with an Anglican service, I mostly ended up trying not to cry through the entire service out of homesickness. From a 1 Corinthians 12 point of view, I've felt like a hand disconnected from my body.
It was when a friendly woman at the church started chatting with me (also, that was my third time there before anyone even talked to me. That's a huge deal for visitors, why do some churches not think of that? Or do they just not anticipate visitors anymore?) that I learned there are also "Free Evangelical" churches, which can be pretty much any protestant denomination. It's hard enough to explain my church experience in English to a person who grew up with a North American understanding of church, let alone to a typical German, who tithes monthly and donates somewhere nice at Christmas but attends church less than twice a year. This woman lived for a while in the US so she was really helpful! I did a google search, and found a bunch of Frei Evangelische Gemeinden in Rosenheim, 25 minutes away.
I visited Destiny last week, despite the funny name, because the website said it was in English and German. I was greeted at the door by someone who, when found out I was new, introduced me to three people, chatted long enough to find something we all had in common, and then made sure we could all sit together. He actually introduced me, coincidentally, to an au pair living a half hour from me who comes from Michigan! And even weirder, there is another au pair who goes there that lives on one of the islands in my lake! Which is rare, because there aren't that many people there to begin with.
The church is a plant from a Scottish church that has campuses all over the world. The pastor is actually Scottish too. If you have never heard a Scot speaking German, you really need to. It's a GREAT combo. It makes me feel better about my "American" accent! Because it's a church plant from a massive conglomerate church in the UK I was expecting something very big and flashy, but it's set in the ground level of an ordinary office building. It has a nice laid back, home church feel to it. They don't even have a designated kids area, they just push the couches together to form a barrier!
The worship was really cool because it was a mix of popular English worship (I hope this isn't awful to say, but its funny hearing all the German speakers trying to sing "th" words. We use that sound a lot in English!) and then modern worship in German. The nice thing was that the words for the German songs were written in English as well, so I could understand what I was singing! The last song they played was Oceans by Hillsong! I realize its not so coincidental, what church doesn't play hillsong songs? But I couldn't help feeling instantly at home there. They had a native German guest speaker there, so I understood only about half of what he said, but he did use a powerpoint (which is a very new thing in churches in Germany still, so I'm told) so I could follow somewhat better.
After the service they had all the newcomers meet in the Besucher-lounge, which I was going to avoid but accidentally sat directly in, and it was great! For a congregation of no more than 60 people, about 8 that day were visiting. I was expecting a big expat crowd too, but a lot of them were native Germans! All in all it was a great experience and very encouraging to find that there is a community in Germany that is actually excited about it's faith. I'm going to keep visiting for a while. I hate to say that German church culture is an area I haven't been able to immerse myself (for the most part I try to avoid traditional North Americana), but I am very thankful that I've found this church. They call themselves born again, which is a term you don't hear much anymore in Canada. I liked hearing it though, because I knew right away I had found the body.
Since I've cut back on my spending (or something like that) and have been around on weekends more often, I started visiting one of the churches in Prien nearby. As with most things :), Germany has a system for churches and people usually ask if you're Catholic or Evangelical. Evangelical in Canada is something somewhat specific, but essentially here it means Anglican. For that reason I've been attending an Anglican church here, but to be honest, what with the language meaning I understand very little, and the lack of familiarity with an Anglican service, I mostly ended up trying not to cry through the entire service out of homesickness. From a 1 Corinthians 12 point of view, I've felt like a hand disconnected from my body.
It was when a friendly woman at the church started chatting with me (also, that was my third time there before anyone even talked to me. That's a huge deal for visitors, why do some churches not think of that? Or do they just not anticipate visitors anymore?) that I learned there are also "Free Evangelical" churches, which can be pretty much any protestant denomination. It's hard enough to explain my church experience in English to a person who grew up with a North American understanding of church, let alone to a typical German, who tithes monthly and donates somewhere nice at Christmas but attends church less than twice a year. This woman lived for a while in the US so she was really helpful! I did a google search, and found a bunch of Frei Evangelische Gemeinden in Rosenheim, 25 minutes away.
I visited Destiny last week, despite the funny name, because the website said it was in English and German. I was greeted at the door by someone who, when found out I was new, introduced me to three people, chatted long enough to find something we all had in common, and then made sure we could all sit together. He actually introduced me, coincidentally, to an au pair living a half hour from me who comes from Michigan! And even weirder, there is another au pair who goes there that lives on one of the islands in my lake! Which is rare, because there aren't that many people there to begin with.
The church is a plant from a Scottish church that has campuses all over the world. The pastor is actually Scottish too. If you have never heard a Scot speaking German, you really need to. It's a GREAT combo. It makes me feel better about my "American" accent! Because it's a church plant from a massive conglomerate church in the UK I was expecting something very big and flashy, but it's set in the ground level of an ordinary office building. It has a nice laid back, home church feel to it. They don't even have a designated kids area, they just push the couches together to form a barrier!
The worship was really cool because it was a mix of popular English worship (I hope this isn't awful to say, but its funny hearing all the German speakers trying to sing "th" words. We use that sound a lot in English!) and then modern worship in German. The nice thing was that the words for the German songs were written in English as well, so I could understand what I was singing! The last song they played was Oceans by Hillsong! I realize its not so coincidental, what church doesn't play hillsong songs? But I couldn't help feeling instantly at home there. They had a native German guest speaker there, so I understood only about half of what he said, but he did use a powerpoint (which is a very new thing in churches in Germany still, so I'm told) so I could follow somewhat better.
After the service they had all the newcomers meet in the Besucher-lounge, which I was going to avoid but accidentally sat directly in, and it was great! For a congregation of no more than 60 people, about 8 that day were visiting. I was expecting a big expat crowd too, but a lot of them were native Germans! All in all it was a great experience and very encouraging to find that there is a community in Germany that is actually excited about it's faith. I'm going to keep visiting for a while. I hate to say that German church culture is an area I haven't been able to immerse myself (for the most part I try to avoid traditional North Americana), but I am very thankful that I've found this church. They call themselves born again, which is a term you don't hear much anymore in Canada. I liked hearing it though, because I knew right away I had found the body.